Sanitary shield.



E. L. BAINBRIDGE-BELL.

' SANITARY sumo.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 9. ION.

1,138,440. Patented May 4, 1915.

j A TTORNEVS ELEANOR L. BAINBEIDGE-BELL, OF MOUNT BETHEL, IENNSYLVANIA.

SANITARY SHIELD.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 4, 1915.

Application tiled November 9, 1814. Serial No. 871,028.

To all whom it may concern Be it known t at I, ELEANOR L. Bamnamos-Bstn, a. citizen of the United States, and a resident of Mount Bethel, in the county of Northampton and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Sanitary Shields, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to sanitary shields for the seats of water closets, and one of main objects thereof is to provide such 'ces in the form of sheets of paper, prefy medicated, having rotccting curis connected therewith w ien in use, but

which present no loose or flapping members before use.

A further object is to provide such shields which are cut, scored, perforated, or otherwise constructed along certain to permit ready se aration of the material thereof along such ines by the weight of a person, said curtains being normall held in the plane of the shield by means 0 integral stays, when the material is out along the lines, as shown in the drawings.

A further object is to so cut, score, or perforate the sheetof material that a front, a back, and opposite side curtains Wlll result when the material is separated on the to predetermined lines by a person seating1 imsel'f thereon, after it has been place pen a closet seat.

A further object is to rin s, or perforations, ith t cfolding of the shield into a compact form for merchandismg' and. further objects are to provide such devices which are simple in construction and use, well adapted for the urpose for which they are designed, entire y protecting against contact between the skin of a person and the closet seat, and so low in cost as to make their use inexcusable. I

My invention is fully described in the fol- 46 lowing specification, of which the accompanying drawings forn a-part, m which the separate parts are designated by thesame reference characters in eaclr of the views, and in which Figure 1 is a plan view of asheet of suitable material constructed in accordance with my invention; Fig. 2 is a view thereof with the stays broken and the curtarps do ndent, previous to receiving the weight 0 :a er- 1 on; and Fig. 3 is a view of the slneld f0 ded such form as to be oiIered for sale.

so locate the cuts,

definite lines as not to interfere In the drawings forming a part of this aplication I have shown a present referred orm of embodiment of my invention, comprising a sheet of suitable material 4: of rectan ular shape, and which is ada ited to be fol ed a ion the centrally arranged longitudinal an transverse dotted lines shown in Figs. 1 and 2 when manufactured, for compact storage and ready for sale, there being no indication of the intended use when so folded. The sheet 4 is out along a substantially semi-circular line, as shown at 7, in the front, and 8 in the rear, stays 9 and 10 being provided, however, for the respective curtains 11 and 12 so formed in order to maintain the curtains in the plane of the sheet until used; these semi-circular or segmental cuts 7 and 8 are terminated u on an imaginary line 13 following the line 0 the openin in the seat, whereby the mate- 'rial of the s eet remains intact over the surface of the seat, this being clearly illustrated. Arranged centrally and longitudinally of the sheet 4, between the segmental cuts 7 and 8, is a straight out 14 not joining the said cuts 7 and 8, and thus not destroying the stays 9 and 10, this line cut, in conjunction with the segmental cuts 7 and 8, forming side curtains 15 and 16 joined, before use, b a. stay 17 intercepting the line out 14, an it will be seen that all four curtains remain in the 1plane of the sheet 4 up to the time of actua use.

In practice, a separate sheet is used by each erson usingthe closet, being placed over t e seat and, if desired, the stays 9, 10, and 17 may be manually torn to a low the curtains 11 12, 15 and 16 to drop into the positions shown in Fig. 2, and, when the user seats himself, the curtains are forced into conformity with the contacting portion of the body of the user, the side curtains only being so affected, 'and the front and rear curtains, not being in direct contact with the body of the user, remain in the dependent positions shown in Fig. 2, and )ositively operate to prevent an contact oY the person of the user with tie bowl of the closet, and all of said curtains prevent such contact with the seat.

It will thus be seen sanitary shield results, stated, which requires only to be placed upon a closet seat in its vended form, the weight of the user forcing a plurality of that a thoroughly for the purpose protecting curtains into operative positions;

which is negligible in original cost but a positive factor in the prevention of contagion or inoculation in closets, being of the greatest importance in ublic comforts; which is of such slight bu k and wei ht as to enable a person to carry a number tliereof in pockets, land-bags, or the like, read for. use; which may be, and preferably will be, medicated so as to positively counteract any deleterious. influences encountered; and which is of such form, when folded, as to be readily dispensed by coin-actuated machines, or vended in envelope in stores, newsstands boats, stations, and in closets gener ally. i am aware that shields for this purpose have heretofore been designed, but they rc uire that a section be manually torn out be ore use, thereby forming an. opening which may be lar er than the opening in a closet seat, and (118 render the device inoperative, or which shield opening may not register with the seat opening when a person seats himself because 0 the probable shifting thereof on a. closet seat while the person is seating himself, and in which event the shield is useless for its intended purpose; my shield, however by the formation of deendent curtains all around the seat 0 enmg, can not be placed upon a seat wit out .quadrant lines jointly forming a broken semi-circle curved toward the center of said sheet; similarly weakened adjacent the other end on quadrant lines jointly forming a broken semi-circle curved toward the center of said sheet, and weakened on a median line from a point ad acent one semi-circular line to a point adjacent the center of the sheet, and similarly weakened on a median line from a point. adjacent the other semicircular line to a point adjacent the center of the sheet.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

ELEANOR b. BAlNBR-IDGE-BELL.

' Witnesses:

J. O. Lassen, 'PHILIP D. Ronnmus.

invention, 

